Here are the numbers from the most impressive season Derek Jeter has had in his career: 158 games, a .308 batting average, .374 on-base percentage, .465 slugging percentage, 20 home runs, 61 RBI, 18-for-23 stealing bases, and an MVP award.

What’s that? Jeter has never been the American League MVP. Well, that’s right. Jeter was MVP of the 2000 World Series, and those numbers are his postseason resume, the performances that Jeter had against top competition in the most important games of his career.

Jeter announced on Wednesday that the 2014 season will be his last as a major leaguer, bringing to an end one of the most storied careers in baseball history. Jeter may have won zero MVPs, zero batting titles, and zero home run titles, but he is the iconic baseball player of the past two decades, surely the last Yankee ever to wear a single-digit uniform number (his No. 2 and Joe Torre's No. 6 are the only ones yet to be retired, but will be), and the lead figure of a dynasty.

“In the 21-plus years in which I have served as Commissioner, Major League Baseball has had no finer ambassador than Derek Jeter,” Bud Selig, who also will retire after this year, said in a statement. “Since his championship rookie season of 1996, Derek has represented all the best of the National Pastime on and off the field. He is one of the most accomplished and memorable players of his – or any – era. Derek is the kind of person that generations have emulated proudly, and he remains an exemplary face of our sport. Major League Baseball looks forward to celebrating his remarkable career throughout the 2014 season.”

If there is one surprise about Jeter’s announcement, considering that he turns 40 in June and this had been speculated to be his last hurrah, it is that he made his intentions known before the season. The way that Jeter conducts himself, the rationale probably is not to embark on a retirement tour, but rather to avoid having questions about his future hang over the season. Now it’s out there. This is it.

Jeter is the last active member of the Yankees’ “Core Four” after Jorge Posada’s retirement following the 2011 season and last year’s departures of Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. The end of Jeter’s career will be the end of an era in baseball, but particularly in New York, where Jeter had a special place in fans’ hearts from the beginning as a rare Yankees first-round pick to make an impact.

Jeter was the No. 6 overall selection in 1992, a year after the Yankees’ ill-fated pick of Brien Taylor at No. 1. When Jeter arrived in the majors in 1995, he was the first Yankees first-round pick to play a game in pinstripes since the 1985 trade that sent Rex Hudler to the Baltimore Orioles. When Jeter played his first playoff game in 1996, he became the first Yankees first-round pick to appear for New York in the postseason since Thurman Munson.

In 1996, after a season in which he won Rookie of the Year honors, Jeter hit the ball that Jeffrey Maier grabbed for a tying home run in Game 1 of the ALCS. It was the first of several iconic playoff moments for Jeter — the leadoff home run in the World Series against the Mets, the flip play in Oakland, the Mr. November home run against the Diamondbacks, the 11-hit World Series against the Phillies, and so many in between.

Without the playoff resume, Jeter still would be a legend. His 3,316 hits rank 10th all time, and Jeter can reasonably expect to pass Paul Molitor (3,319), Carl Yastrzemski (3,419), Honus Wagner (3,420), and Cap Anson (3,435) if he stays healthy this season. A top-five position on the all-time list is conceivable, with Tris Speaker at 3,514 – Jeter has had eight seasons of 198 or more hits, most recently a league-leading 216 in 2012.

With the playoff resume, Jeter is something else entirely, someone who has transcended baseball to be a cultural icon. Go back to Babe Ruth and find another non-pitcher meeting that description who never won an MVP or even hit more than 24 home runs in a season. No, Deion Sanders does not count. His fame came from playing two sports, and more from football. Jeter is it.

The Yankees already started the process of moving on to their next era this winter, with the additions of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Masahiro Tanaka, all on contracts of five or more years. There is no replacing Jeter, only moving on, and even if a new dynasty dawns in the Bronx, it won’t be the same as one led by the kid from Kalamazoo who was a Yankee from the start and straight on through to the finish.